Instructional Design in the Metaverse Part 7 Design and Build

 

 

Heading out with purpose, emotion, and awareness of real world.

At this point, we have all of the building blocks ready to begin a design. We know what works from 2D learning and what to try with 3D learning. Beginning the steps to launch an XR experience can feel more like a User Experience (UX) project than an instructional design project, however. UX similarly uses storyboards, journey mapping, and personas which can be very helpful in designing emotion into the experience. Prototype versions can be ready for a few users to sample and give feedback. Overall, ID projects in the metaverse feel different because the designing and building phases blend together with test layouts requiring adjustment.

Even at the final project launch, instructional designers (IDs) should observe how the learners are experiencing the design. IDs should be at the forefront with the learners, constantly evaluating what is working and what is not. It can be very helpful for IDs to observe what learners try first or how they explore the experience. In this way, design with this media is less of a one-way instance and more of an ongoing process. Remember D. Clark's 'always beginning, never ending' design advice? The following three sections represent lessons already learned in ID for XR designs.

1 Focus on Purpose

Determining purpose at the earliest stage is critical because the purpose guides many of the upcoming ID decisions. Traditional ID projects begin with these questions that ask about the main learning objective or goal.

• "What will students be able to do at the end of the course" (Stanford University, 2023).

• “Focus on performance requirements” (Guy Wallace as quoted in Washburn, 2023).

• “Identify desired results” (MIT Teaching and Learning Lab, 2023).

• “Think about what people are truly trying to do and realize that’s a system” (Don Norman as quoted in Faller, 2017).

However, because the metaverse is an experience for the learners, it can be thought of as a place and time; it is like a field trip. 

 

Sistine Chapel (actual)

Here is an example: An art history instructor wants to recreate a visit to the Sistine Chapel. Rather than first creating an XR building or finding an XR recreated chapel, the ID can determine what is the most important experience for the learner. It could be:

• Appreciating Michelangelo’s artistic style

• Imagining how the artist would have painted in the space

• Discussing the role of sponsors for art

• Viewing the artwork like real life (looking up)

Each of those different purposes could generate a different learning design.

Let’s say the instructor wants to emphasize viewing the artwork within the chapel, on the curved ceiling and the soaring upper walls and how this viewing angle intersects with perspective. Noting prior experiences, learners might have only seen this art somewhat straight-on from photographs. 

 

 

Viewing straight up into a ceiling bay. Note now from this view, both left and right are looking down, even when you are looking up. Michelangelo?! Escher much?

In real life, the art appears above the viewer. Thus, there are two different points to view from: in photographs, the view is from what would be mid-air. In real life, the view is from the ground. 

 

Same ceiling bay, showing how the side pieces appear to "curve down" to vertical walls, creating a left/right sides illusion. So...WHAT is the PURPOSE you want to teach?

In XR, designers could use either or both. The learners might be able to first view the artwork from the floor and then fly and compare looking at the art from mid-air. In this way, the learners will have comparative viewing from different angles…something that the real life Chapel can not easily provide. This satisfies the instructor's request to focus on the viewing experience by providing a standard replication and then a different angle as comparison. 

 

Side by side photo comparison of the real Sistine Chapel and a virtual Sistine Chapel. Except for some light, nearly indistinguishable from each other. 

Sistine Chapel - virtual is for sale for $39 US at Sketchfab

By thinking about the learner’s experience, the designer can start to list which aspects of the real world need to be replicated (e.g., gravity, enclosed space) and which aspects will not be from reality (e.g. flying on demand). In summary, this adage fits: begin with the end in mind.

For XR designs, ask “what is the feeling that you want your learner to have?” That might come as a surprise– elevating feeling as a primary design priority. The next section will address why the feel of an XR design is more important than its content.

2 Emotion Transcends Language

Pixar is a highly successful storytelling company. In the Pixar narrative model, the highest production emphasis is placed on the emotions within the story (Khan Academy Labs, 2017). Characters and setting are considered secondarily. 

 

Lou Romano created wordless, colored storyboards for The Incredibles based on a 1960s esthetic. It worked. Everyone else could build from these emotion-evoking images.

Emotional coinage works in XR storytelling because emotion transcends language; it does not need a text pop-up or an AI translator.

When an emotion can be relayed in some sort of visual or sound media, the designer can worry less about language translation or exactness in the metaverse. XR works naturally in this realm. Combining emotion with narrative plot creates designs where the learner is truly at the center because the learner becomes the lead character in the story. They are pulled along the learning journey because their character (their avatar) is experiencing the story. 

 

Credit: Disney. Concept art showing 3 great things: 1 A clear "invite" to join the story 2 Headsets and non-headset users portrayed simultaneously. 3 Girls clearly invited, who are, apparently, good shots.

Alger illustrated these atomic design elements used to relay emotion: line, color, motion, lighting, spatial arrangement, sound timbre, haptic sensations, user proprioception, or visual elements like iridescence and specularity (2020). 

 

Just the basics of visual design, there is so much more for XR including sound design, body movement and placement, temperature and pressure, and smell!

IDs might want to work with designers from industrial or interior design, architects, or public space planners. [Hot tip: want to read more? The Internet Library has The Pocket Universal Principles Of Design 150 Essential Tools.

I like this page particularly linking ceiling height with "feeling" in spaces, proposing the high ceilings spur creativity whereas low ceilings foster focus.

In planning a design, IDs can ask the instructor what the main emotion is that they want their learners to feel within the space (curiosity, happiness, fear, proficiency, etc.).

The emotions can, of course, change as the story changes. In prototypes, IDs should ask learners what feelings they have in the XR space. Does the feeling match the purpose/goal? If not, the design needs to be changed to foster the emotion that is intended.

3 Real World Correlation

After the purpose is established and the central emotions are noted for a learning experience, the ID can determine how much of a real world correlation there is to the XR experience.

For instance, when coming up against a design challenge in XR, IDs should ask, “How is this done in the real world?”

The answer might be that the learner does a behavior (e.g. takes notes or alters a piece of equipment) or retrieves more information (e.g. looks at a reference source). With some consideration, the real world solution can be strategized together with the Multimedia Principles and created in XR. For example, if learners are struggling to remember a series of steps, do they need a nearby poster as a visual aid? If learners are getting something wrong with timing, do they need a stopwatch or clock? In XR, posters and clocks do not need to necessarily hang on walls. 

Capture from a rabbit counting experience. The timer appears in the upper left corner indicating 33 seconds left. Timers and clocks can be placed anywhere in XR. 

Combining what we already know from the Multimedia Principles will maximize the opportunity to learn by placing the relevant information when and where the learner will need it.

Starting with real world correlations is the healthy first step, but next, the IDs should consider what affordances XR can further provide. For example, do the learners need to fly or go inside an object? XR easily provides the ability to go through what would be solid objects like walls. Referring to a prior example, if a learner needs access to a clock, can a floating one be put into the learner's field of view, but not necessarily on a wall or wrist? By imagining the experience in pieces or segments, an ID can deconstruct what is necessary to drive the experience along and then rebuild those segments with the added possibilities of 3D design.

Here is another example: an experience is replicating a spacewalk in outer space. The learning objective is to have the learner follow the correct procedure despite stressful conditions. The learner needs to put on a space suit following the correct procedure and check it for safety before leaving the spaceship. The emotional tone is to be calm and methodical even if the situation is urgent. What is the real world correlation to this experience? It might be donning protective equipment at a cold weather research station. This is a cognitively correlated event; the thought process is very similar. Thus, we can use this real world event to drive the design of the XR event. Items need to be put on in a certain order and checked for safety before going outside. 

 

Bundle up, baby, it's cold outside.

The XR design might want to include an alarm sound or flashing light to create urgency. Some sort of ‘buddy check’ system might stand by so that after the learner puts on the equipment, it is checked by another entity. Including alarms and safety checks are correlations to real world elements that can be built into the experience. The details of surrounding walls and floors or what is happening outside the spaceship do not influence this learning event. Mayer (2020) refers to these as seductive details – interesting, but they detract from the learning. Therefore, those details can be minimized in the surrounding design.

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Part 8 is the last part!! It will acknowledge the limitations of what we know from research so far. But I've tucked one of my best tips into Part 8 before I conclude. Stay tuned, fellow babies*, for one last time.

 

 

Decorative image: Prompt: Wide angle shot from the side, in the style of full color charcoal and Legend of Zelda game cover art, a female profile in a hooded cloak climbing up a mountain towards light, she carries a flame in one hand, in the style of deep indigo, light silver, enchanting lighting, blue and green color scheme --ar 16:9

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Part 1 was the Introduction.

Part 2 covered Theory and Scope.

Part 3 was Myths versus Reality.

Part 4 covered the Characteristics of Success.

Part 5 was What is the same between 2D and 3D design?

Part 6 was What is different between 2D and 3D design?

Want to see my full references? Have at it.

*Apologies if you don't catch the reference to Johnny Fever from WKRP where groups of people were "fellow babies".

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